Author Topic: greenhouse water collection from gutters  (Read 5598 times)

cacran

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greenhouse water collection from gutters
« on: June 20, 2020, 22:21:43 »
Does anyone have a way to collect rainwater from greenhouse gutters without buying a proper kit? I don't mind how it looks, just needs be functional. I have water butts at the end of guttering but gutters do not extend enough. I have tried all sorts of methods which are not very good.

Obelixx

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Re: greenhouse water collection from gutters
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2020, 08:25:37 »
There was an episode of Garden Rescue in which the Rich brothers fixed a similar short guttering problem using short pieces of guttering sloping down the shed side in a descending Z shape to guide water into a container.   This was a kids' play feature but you could surely use the idea to extend guttering to your water butt?
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ancellsfarmer

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Re: greenhouse water collection from gutters
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2020, 08:25:53 »
Assuming that your greenhouse is built to give fall to the chosen end, then you need a brass hose union barbed piece*, a small pack of epoxy paste(Such as Repair Metal for Good), a drill bit of size to suit (1/2"), a sufficient length of 1/2" hose, a Jubilee clip.
Drill a hole about 2" from the low end of the gutter, from the top surface. File a slot across the hose union threaded piece to allow water to enter the spigot. Bed the union into the hole from the top with the epoxy paste. Form a ball of a second dollop of the mixed paste of sufficient size to fill the end of the gutter at (both) ends to prevent leakage. When set, attach the length of hose to fixed spigot and apply clip carefully.Place the other end directly into butt. This will enable the gutter to fill under rainfall, and then trickle into the pipe and thence into the butt. Keep fitting clear of debris.
*https://www.bes.co.uk/screwed-tail-adaptor-brass-1-2-bsp-x-13mm-hose-bore-17546/
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Redalder

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Re: greenhouse water collection from gutters
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2020, 13:03:31 »
This is how we did it using standard plumbing bits, the long run was the side where the gutter drained the "wrong" way so we needed to take the water against the built in drain slope
« Last Edit: June 21, 2020, 13:08:09 by Redalder »

Tee Gee

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Re: greenhouse water collection from gutters
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2020, 17:43:09 »
I was given a Water butt complete with fall pipe fitting but my problem was I could only rig it up on one long side of my Greenhouse so to fetch the gutter on the other side of the greenhouse into play I had to make a few DIY alterations.

I did this by drilling a hole in the gutter stop end on the gutter I wanted to connect to the system, then I fitted a piece of standard ½" hosepipe into it (Pic1)

Next I fitted the hose pipe into some sliding window channel I had kicking about then I put the opposite end of the hose into the fall pipe fitting (Pic2)

This was the finished job (pic 3)

Vinlander

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Re: greenhouse water collection from gutters
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2020, 11:31:31 »
I'm wrestling with a variation on this problem - how can you collect rainwater from a polytunnel? 

You have to glue the gutter to the cover (or tape over the gap). If you run it below the "roof" half you only get two thirds of the rain at best - and the gutter casts a shadow inside (unless it's on the N side only).

I'm thinking have the S gutter 30cm above the ground (so its shadow falls on soil not plants) and drill it all the way along so it leaks straight into the PT. Maybe some tubes to get it over the 30cm gap to the first row of peppers. Would remove the need to go and water the PT when it's raining (whenever I say I'm going to water SWMBO says - "but it's raining" - I must have said "it doesn't rain under plastic" a million times).

The N side could have the gutter at head height leading into a butt outside and an irrigation channel inside.

Any other ideas?

Cheers.
With a microholding you always get too much or bugger-all. (I'm fed up calling it an allotment garden - it just encourages the tidy-police).

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Tantalus

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Re: greenhouse water collection from gutters
« Reply #6 on: September 02, 2021, 14:26:14 »
I used a bit of sheet alloy cut it out and shaped it to look like the greenhouse gutter. Fixed in place using some glue and it works fine, water runs along gutter and then drops into rain barrel.

Tantalus

Beersmith

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Re: greenhouse water collection from gutters
« Reply #7 on: September 03, 2021, 18:15:16 »

Any other ideas?

Cheers.

Many years back my father-in-law had a polytunnel. He had guttering on the ground taped to the walls and had rigged up a sort of seep hose arrangement so that most of the rainwater ended up inside the tunnel.

This was long before I had an allotment and I've never had a tunnel myself so cannot give more details.  I think he had used a bit of trial and error but he produced some amazing blooms, as flowers were his main interest.
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